Third Sunday of Lent (B)

In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
“I, the Lord, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourselves an idol,
any image of anything that is in the heavens above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
you shall not bow yourself down to them,
nor serve them,
for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children,
on the third and on the fourth generation
of those who hate me,
and showing loving kindness to the thousandth generation
of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy.
You shall labor six days
and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
You shall not do any work on it,
not you nor your son nor your daughter,
not your male servant nor your female servant,
nor your livestock, nor the stranger who is within your gates;
for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be long
in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
restoring the soul.
The covenant of the Lord is sure,
making the simple wise.

R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart.
The command of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes.

R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.

R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

More to be desired are they than gold,
yes, than a pile of fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
the extract of the honeycomb.

R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

Reading 2 – 1 Corinthians 1.22-25

Brothers and sisters:
For Jews ask for signs,
Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified;
a stumbling block to Jews,
and foolishness to Greeks,
but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks,
Christ is the power of God
and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than humans,
and the weakness of God is stronger than humans.

Gospel – John 2.13-25

The Passover of the Jews was near,
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found, sitting in the temple,
the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves and the moneychangers.
So when he had made a whip out of cords,
he drove them all out of the temple,
including the sheep and the oxen,
and he poured out the moneychangers’ money,
and he overturned the tables.
And to those who sold doves he said,
“Take these things out of here,
and do not make the house of my Father a house of a bazaar.”
His disciples remembered that it was written,
“The zeal for your house has consumed me.”

The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to him,
“What sign do you show us, since you do these things?”
Jesus answered, and said to them,
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Then the Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple,
and you will raise it up in three days?
But he spoke of the temple of his body.

Therefore when he was risen from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they believed the Scripture
and the word that Jesus had said.

Now when he was in Jerusalem
during the feast of Passover,
many believed in his name,
seeing his signs which he did.
But Jesus did not trust himself to them,
because he knew them all,
and did not need for anyone
to testify concerning the human;
for he himself knew what was in the human.